The energy storage industry is at a transition point.

As market growth accelerates, an increasing number of stakeholders are managing large fleets of batteries for the first time. Plus, subspecialty vendors are scaling to help owners get greater value from these batteries. As with most shifts in maturing markets, however, growing pains are common. With batteries, operational complexity due to electro-chemical considerations, coupled with the challenge of managing outliers among millions of batteries in growing portfolios — sometimes result in incidents, unplanned expenses, and lost revenue.

The management challenge, for both experienced hands and newcomers alike, is about achieving the desired outcomes of BESS while controlling for the range of operating risks. With large-scale storage, operational risks arrive from many angles: outliers in battery cell quality; errors in system installation; faulty state estimations among Battery Management Systems (BMS); and a lack of best practices.

As the industry matures, it is becoming clear that deep insights from battery data result in safer and more profitable systems.  

Data plays a critical role

Batteries generate high volumes of data; the information it contains can be tremendously valuable when modern software is applied. Within every BESS, the BMS ensures that the batteries operate within certain operational bounds. This simple logic chip continuously governs voltage, current, and temperature. Every day, the BMS creates thousands and thousands of data points for each individual battery.

While BMSs have limitations, the data hold a significance extending well beyond basic onsite purposes. By combining BMS data with cutting-edge analytics techniques that leverage the power of the cloud, a comprehensive understanding of the battery's health and internal processes can be attained. A hybrid approach of physics-based models...

Keep reading at North American Clean Energy magazine.

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